Warehousing and distribution facilities have grown in importance in the supply chain in recent years. In such facilities, large warehouses are used to collect and store many types of goods at a central location for shipment by truck to one or more locations, typically retail locations. Goods may be stored in the warehouse by pallet load or individually, and goods may be shipped either by uniform pallet, mixed pallet, or otherwise.
There are many sizes of pallets in use for carrying goods such as groceries or beverages. Some pallets are assembled from pieces of wood, and some are made from a unitary piece of plastic, for example by injection molding. Many conventional pallets are square or substantially square. For example, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) recognizes standard pallet sizes of 36×36 inches, 42×42 inches, 40×40 inches, 40×48 inches, etc. Many other sizes exist.
Recently, smaller substantially-rectangular pallets have become more common. For example, 48×20 inch pallets are ISO-recognized. Other pallets have widths of 18.5 inches and lengths from 43 to 53 inches. Such smaller pallets have roughly half the footprint of a typical pallet, and they are accordingly often referred to as “half-pallets.” FIGS. 13 and 14 show two conventional half-pallet designs.
Due to their narrower width and lighter weight as compared to full-sized pallet loads, half-pallet loads can be easier to load onto and unload from a delivery truck, to load onto a handtruck, and to move into a store. For example, a delivery person might place a half-pallet load onto a specialized handtruck, walk the load through a door of a retail location, and perhaps through a further door into a walk-in refrigerated area. The half-pallet and its load can then be deposited at the desired location. Such maneuverability may not be possible with full loads for several reasons, such as the extra equipment (a forklift) needed to lift the pallet load, the load being larger than a door through which it must go, the load being too heavy to manipulate without de-palletizing, the location not requiring a full pallet load of particular goods, etc.
Half-pallets are typically formed with at least one widthwise and lengthwise groove in their bottom sides for receiving forks of a lift or handtruck. Typically, two parallel grooves are provided extending in a widthwise direction and one in a lengthwise direction. Because of such discontinuous bottom surface, half-pallet loads are often carried through conveying systems on planar carriers to improve stability. FIGS. 13 and 14 show two such conventional half-pallets 22′ and 22″ on carriers 24′ and 24″, each half-pallet having widthwise grooves 26′ and 26″ and a lengthwise groove 28′ and 28″. As illustrated, the half-pallets are unitarily-molded plastic structures, and the carriers are constructed from pieces of wood.
When half-pallet loads are to be removed from a conveying system, for example for loading onto a truck or rack storage system, the half-pallet loads are removed from the carriers and transferred to a load take-away conveyor or the like. The carriers are then directed to a carrier take away conveyor, typically for reuse within the system.
To remove half-pallet loads from carriers in some existing automated systems, the carriers with the half-pallet loads are driven to an unloading position and then stopped. Two fork arms attached to a laterally-movable gantry or the like are then inserted above the carrier and beneath the half-pallet into the widthwise grooves of the half pallet. The fork arms then lift the half-pallet load and place it on an outfeed conveyor or the like while the carrier is moved away on another conveyor. This stopping, lifting, and placing can be a bottleneck in the system that slows throughput as compared to other points in the system.
Accordingly, systems, methods and devices that improve the overall throughput of palletized loads, including half-pallet loads, and/or their removal from carriers, or that provide other benefits, would be welcome.